Catcher Gone Awry : CLU’s Work Charged With Punching Former Coach

Rik Work, a wandering ballplayer attending his sixth college, has found a home with the Cal Lutheran baseball team. He is the Kingsmen’s catcher and their leading hitter, and his teammates comment on his maturity, humor and ability.

But despite Work’s best efforts at a fresh start, an incident that took place at Missouri-St. Louis the day before Thanksgiving of 1994 continues to follow him.

Work, 22, punched his Missouri-St. Louis coach, Jim Brady, breaking his nose and giving him a concussion when a verbal confrontation between the two escalated.

“We were face to face so tight we could smell each other’s breath,” Work said. “We squared off and I hit him. He went down and I hit him twice more.”

Work is charged with second-degree assault, a felony. He has entered a plea of not guilty and a trial is scheduled May 6 in St. Louis County. Brady, 44, also has filed a personal injury claim against Work in civil court, seeking restitution for medical bills and damage to his reputation.

Dan Diemer, the St. Louis County prosecutor representing Brady, believes an agreement will be reached that would preclude a criminal trial. Although Work has admitted to punching Brady, Diemer said a jury could sympathize with the player.

“We’re talking about a kid making a stupid mistake, but for this mistake to hound him the rest of his life, I don’t know if that is fair to Rik,” Diemer said. “A jury will assess this kid and say, yes, he is guilty of a misdemeanor, but nobody is going to put him in jail.”

Brady’s short temper, which Work said instigated the punch, could work in the player’s favor.

“Jim Brady can be like Bobby Knight on a bad day,” Diemer said. “He loses his temper with me on the phone, and I’m on his side in this. That’s his reputation and the defense attorney will exploit it. He will light Jim’s fuse.”

Two assistant coaches and a bystander witnessed the fight, which broke out in the school’s indoor athletic facilities.

Brady had scheduled the entire team to work on the field, but only Work, Brady and two assistant coaches showed up on a bitterly cold day. The coaches and Work returned inside after spending time on the field, and Brady, incensed at the poor turnout, ran into another player, who was lifting weights.

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Brady said he used profanity and degraded the player while Work stood nearby, seething.

“After I was finished with [the other player], I walked past Rik and he said, ‘Are you done?,’ ” Brady said. “I said, ‘Excuse me? Do you know who you are talking to?’ ”

According to a written statement made by assistant coach Joe Swiderski to the Missouri-St. Louis Police Department, Work then said to Brady, “I’m tired of all the verbal abuse and tired of being belittled. I want a piece of you. I’ll knock your head off.”

Work said he threw the punch in response to Brady’s verbal barrage. All three witnesses said Brady made no attempt to defend himself.

“I listened, listened, listened, then it got hazy,” said Work, who has no prior criminal record.

Brady did not file charges for several weeks, which he said he regrets. Two months ago, he retained an attorney to pursue civil damages.

“At first I didn’t want to be known as the coach who got punched by a kid,” Brady said. “But as time went on, I’ve seen how things work, and I can’t let this go on any more. That kid has to be held accountable for what he did.”

Work finished the fall 1994 semester at Missouri-St. Louis then transferred to nearby Maryville University in St. Louis. The following spring he batted .506, third in Division III, but he said he left the school at the end of the season because of the team’s losing record.

Nova College in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., an NAIA school, was his next stop, but after it was clear to him last summer that he would be a designated hitter, he transferred to Cal Lutheran.

Campus-hopping began early for Work: Before surfacing at Missouri-St. Louis, he played football and baseball at the University of Indianapolis as a freshman in 1992 and at Illinois College in 1993.

Because his transfer to Missouri-St. Louis was his second at the Division II level, he was ineligible to play in 1994. He traveled with the team and served as bullpen catcher.

Work was immediately eligible to play at Maryville and Cal Lutheran because they are NCAA Division III schools with lenient transfer requirements.

Cal Lutheran Coach Marty Slimak, whose program long has been an oasis for nomads of college baseball, was unconcerned with Work’s background.

“He mentioned when he got here that he’d had a confrontation with a coach, but we didn’t get into details because it happened a long time ago,” said Slimak, whose team has a record of 21-7 and is ranked No. 2 in Division III. “Rik has been a model citizen. He is very calm, he is a quiet leader, he epitomizes everything we want on this team.”

Kingsmen players are shocked their seemingly happy-go-lucky teammate with plans to attend law school has assault charges hanging over his head.

“If I had to guess who on the team would have done that, Rik Work would be the very last person I would guess,” pitcher Eric Kiszczak said. “He keeps things to himself, but he has a great sense of humor and he is very smart.”

Out of character or not, reports of his punching a coach could have made other programs avoid Work. Yet Slimak and the Kingsmen are standing by him.

“We all do things we wish we hadn’t done,” Slimak said. “You learn from it and go on.”

Brady is aghast at Slimak’s forgiving attitude.

“I’m appalled they would allow that kid to take the field,” he said. “Wrong is wrong. Here’s a kid looking at prison and he’s one of the leaders on the baseball team? Excuse me?”

Work, batting .360 for the Kingsmen, said he regrets punching Brady, who is closing in on 300 victories. Missouri-St. Louis currently is ranked No. 6 in Division II.

“I should have just shut my mouth and walked away,” Work said. “It was a sad event and I’ve grown up since then. I’ve learned to hold my temper.”

Meanwhile, Brady is adding up his medical bills and trying to put a dollar figure on the damage to his reputation.

“This has taken a toll on my life that is hard to measure,” he said. “It’s something that just won’t seem to go away.”